The Navy recently released a copy of the investigation into the 2017 incident and included a transcript of the in-flight conversation. And the result is everything you’d imagine it to be.

All credit for the iconic art piece goes to two junior officers completing a routine 90-minute flight training session over the skies of north-central Washington. They were training with the “Zappers” of Electronic Attack Squadron 130 and had flown out to train with another jet around noon that day.

The partner jet later flew off to another section of the training area and as the session went on, ideas began to flow for how to kill time.

“Draw a giant penis,” broached the cockpit partner, an electronic warfare officer (EWO) to the pilot of the EA-18G Growler. “That would be awesome.”

Oh, we turned dinosaurs into sky penises

In a statement after the incident, the pilot wrote that he had initially hesitated. “But for some reason still unknown to me, I eventually decided to do it,” he added.

In the transcript provided by the Navy Times, the pilot boasted that it would be easy to draw one. “I could basically draw a figure eight and turn around and come back. I’m gonna go down, grab some speed and hopefully get out of the contrail layer so they’re not connected to each other.”

The two officers had also noticed that the white contrails emitted by their jet were particularly strong that afternoon, making for great sky ink.

“What did you do on your flight?” the pilot joked. “Oh, we turned dinosaurs into sky penises.”

Enthusiastic about their new artistic venture, they found an ideal altitude and began to create the iconic sky penis.

As with most spontaneous endeavours, not everything went according to plan.

“Balls are going to be a little lopsided,” the pilot said. According to the transcript, the officers engaged in some serious deliberation over the direction and width of the shaft. However, the fruit of their labour gradually took notable shape.

The squadron’s commanding officer would later praise the pilot as a shy “whiz kid who managed our training and readiness with higher efficiency and effectiveness than anyone else I have seen in a squadron,” according to the investigation.

This handout photo taken on June 5, 2016 and released by the US Navy on June 16, 2016 shows a Boeing EA-18G Growler electronic warfare aircraft taking off from the USS John Stennis aircraft carrier at sea in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region.U.S. NAVY / Handout /
AFP

“To get out of this, I’m gonna go like down and to the right,” the pilot said, according to the transcript. “And we’ll come back up over the top and try to take a look at it.”

They were concerned that part of their artwork would dissipate before they got a chance to review it. Little did they know that it was the opposite that would land them in hot water.

The contrails lingered longer than expected, prompting officers in the partner jet to admire their sky penis. “Your artwork is amazing,” the lieutenant commander EWO in the other jet radioed to them.

“Glad you guys noticed,” the pilot replied.

However, the sky drawing still hadn’t dissipated, which began to worry the artists.The pilot later wrote that he tried to scribble it out by flying through it, but failed.

Defeated and running low on fuel, they returned the jet to Whidbey Island. However, the damage was done. The deputy commodore of the Electronic Attack Wing Pacific emailed pictures of the sky penis to the executive officer (XO) who confronted the pilot and EWO.

This was a really bad decision by some really good guys in a really good squadron

“They both apologized and were at once remorseful,” the XO wrote in a summary. According to the investigation, the pilot admitted that he deleted whatever photos he had taken of his art piece out of shame as well as to prevent any accidental spread.

Within hours the photos were circulated through to the Office of the Naval Chief in Washington as a warning of the media fire to come. The Navy issued an immediate apology to residents for the “unacceptable obscene trails” and assured them that they had reprimanded the pilots in question. “I impressed upon them that this immature act was counter to our culture which values treating everyone with dignity and respect,” wrote Vice Admiral Mike Shoemaker in a letter to the superintendent of the Okanogan School District.

The officers in question were brought before a disciplinary board, where the investigating officer recommended “non-punitive letters of instruction.”

“While the sky writing conducted by (the lieutenants) was crude, immature, and unprofessional, it was not premeditated or planned and not in keeping with their character demonstrated prior to the incident,” the investigator wrote.

The drawing was also investigated to see if it reflected any larger problems within levels of command and found none. As one squadron officer summed it up, “This was a really bad decision by some really good guys in a really good squadron.”